Miss Wynne's Cherry tree in full flower.

Miss Wynne's cherry tree has come into bloom.  It is a Japanese Cherry tree. Earlier on this year we looked at the tulips in bloom underneath it. 

Poached egg plant.

Poached egg plant.

In a previous blog, I spoke about companion planting.  The plant which encourages hover flies has begun to flower.  You can see where it gets its name.

Germination

The potatoes and seeds planted during the incredible edibles week have started to grow. here we can see the potatoes in the pot peeping above ground. The germinated seeds will be planted out over the next few weeks.

Miss Caroll's sunflowers germinate!

Miss Carolls class planted sunflower seeds before the Easter break.  And Look! they have germinated.  I have been carefully watering them to help them grow.

Horse chestnut Flowers

The Horse Chestnut has come into full flower.  The flower spike is called a "candle".  The flowers will be pollinated by insects and the familiar green spiky seeds will start to develop.

Companion planting

Companion planting means planting a combination of plants which serve a purpose.  I have planted a border of poached egg plant which has white flowers with a yellow centre.  These flowers attract hover flies, hover flies eat aphids (green fly).  Birds eat green fly and hover flies. So by planting, rather than spraying insecticide, we encourage nature to control pest species and provide food for the birds.

The plants should be in full flower in a week or so, When you come back from Easter Holidays, look for the hover flies.

Herbs for cooking in the school

I have made a small herb bed for the Cookery Class.  There is rosemary, mint, parsley planted and corriander seeds sown.

The other bed the long narrow one, has thyme, parsley, oregano, and chives.

Happy Cooking

Frogs

Last year we had some frogs in the school grounds, here are photos of them.  We had two.  I brought them in to show the classes who were learning about the life cycle of the frog.  As you all know by now, frogs lay eggs called spawn, this looks like little circular balls of jelly with a black dot in the centre. This hatches into tadpoles, these grow and feed all during the spring and summer.  They first grow back legs and their head changes shape from round to slightly angular, their front legs then grow, tail starts to shrink, gills (which enable them to breath underwater) disappear. The tiny frog then has to leave the water and live on land.  It is very important to ensure that there is a rock in the pond with one side out of the water and close to the edge of the pond to allow the little frog to leave the water.
Frogs can drown if unable to get out of the water.

Frogs are AMPHIBIAN, this means they are able to live in and out of water, they hibernate either in the water over winter or buried under leaves in a sheltered place or in a log pile.





Can you spot the tadpoles?  Photo by Diane Purtell

Herbs

We use herbs to flavour food.  Herbs can be added during cooking or finely chopped and sprinkled over the finished dish or over a salad.  Herbs have a distinctive flavour.  Some have medicinal uses as well as culinary.
Some herbs growing in the school grounds are Chives, Oregano, Thyme, and Parsley.  I will be adding more as the season progresses.

Chives

Oregano

Parsley

Visitor

Look who visited my garden today.  What bird is it?

HINT:  look at the angle of its tail.  It is a tiny bird, and reputed to be the King of the Birds.

Bumble bees

The bumble bees we see flying at this time of year are young fertilised queens that have hibernated over the winter.

Bumble bees have much fatter hairier bodies than honey-bees, they forage for food, pollinate flowers and sting preditators just like honey-bees.  They also have three castes, drones (male) workers (female) and a queen. They live in a social group like honey-bees but in smaller numbers.  A bumble bee hive will have about 150 bees. Bumble bee queens gather pollen and nectar to make honey. The nests are under ground, often made from grass, in which the queen makes wax cells.  She lays an egg in some cells and stores honey in others.  The eggs hatch into worker bees and they forage for pollen and nectar to feed the larvae. And so the hive grows.  The bumble bee does not make enough honey to keep the hive alive over the winter so the drones, workers and old queen die as the cold weather sets in, and only the young fertilised queens survive. They hibernate over the winter and start the cycle over again in the spring.

Photos by Diane Purtell

Another bird

This bird was spotted in the garden
CAN YOU IDENTIFY IT?

HINT It also has a black stripe down the middle of its breast.

Photo by Diane Purtell

CHERRY BLOSSOM

Our wild cherry trees have just started to flower, the flowers open just before the leaves, the fruit are produced in autumn and are red and sometimes sweet but mostly bitter.  Birds love the fruit and can strip the tree of fruit in a day. The bark is reddish brown and the wood is dense and strong and used in furniture making and wood turning. Ornamental cherry blossom is grafted onto the rootstock of wild cherry.

Photos by Diane Purtell.

COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLY

THIS BUTTERFLY WAS IN THE GARDEN EARLY THIS MORNING IT IS CALLED THE "COMMON BLUE".  IT IS A MALE AS THE FEMALE IS BROWN.  IT IS A VERY SMALL BUTTERFLY (WINGSPAN 35MM) AND IS RESTING ON A BRAMBLE LEAF.

THE BRIGHT BLUE COLOUR IS PRODUCED BY THE DIFFRACTION OF SUNLIGHT BY THOUSANDS OF CORRUGATED SCALES ON THE WINGS WHCH ABSORB ALL COLOURS OF THE SPECTRUM EXCEPT BLUE.  THE WINGS CONTAIN NO BLUE PIGMENT.

THE FEMALE LAYS EGGS SINGLY ON CLOVER AND VETCH AND THE LARVAE PUPATE AT THE BASE OF THE FOOD PLANT.

OUR YOUNGEST GARDENERS

I HAD GREAT FUN TODAY WITH OUR YOUNGEST GARDENERS, OUR MONTESSORI CHILDREN CAME OUT TO PLANT THEIR INCREDIBLE EDIBLES AND TO HAVE A LOOK AROUND THE GARDEN TO SEE WHAT HAD GROWN SINCE THEY WERE LAST OUT.  THEY LOOKED AT THE DAFFODILS AND TULIPS AND HAD LOTS TO SAY ABOUT WHAT THEY SAW. WE LOOKED AT WORMS, SNAILS, TADPOLES, BIRDS, FLOWERS AND ALL THE LITTLES ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING THEIR PLANTS GROW.

ARENT THEY JUST SO CUTE !!!!

More Incredible edibles

THIS IS MISS ARCHER'S CLASS THEY ARE JUNIOR INFANTS AND WERE THE BEST BEHAVED AND MOST PLEASANT CLASS.  THEY LISTENED ATTENTIVELY TO EVERYTHING AND WERE INTERESTED IN ALL THEY SAW.  AS ONE LITTLE GIRL SAID "MISS ARCHER IS A VERY LUCKY TEACHER TO HAVE US".



MRS DUNNE'S CLASS



MR O'DONOGHUE'S CLASS



MISS O'NEILL'S CLASS

MR McGRATH'S CLASS

WE HAD FABULOUS WEATHER TODAY FOR THE PLANTING OF OUR POTATOES, STRAWBERRIES AND ASSORTED SEEDS.  I WENT OVER TO THE SCHOOL AFTER TEA THIS EVENING TO GIVE EVERY THING A GOOD WATERING.



AGILE BIRD

Here is a small garden bird, really agile as you can see it turns itself upside down to pick small insects off the branches, there were a pair of birds on this tree, so they are probably a nesting pair.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY THE BIRD. Look closely at the pattern on the head.

This bird likes to eat conifer seeds and insects in summer.  It will visit bird tables .  It nests in holes in trees.

Horse chestnut

Our horse chestnuts are coming into leaf really quickly, one or two of the trees even have flower buds visible. In a week or so the leaves will have expanded fully and the flowers will have opened.

Flower spike on horse chestnut.

Nesting

BIRDS ARE BUSY BUILDING NESTS.

Here is a thrush on her nest.

Starling feeding on the ivy

As I said in an earlier post, ivy is a brilliant plant in the garden for birds.  This time of the year when the birds are busy building nests they need lots of energy, they get this from food especially berries.  Here is a hungry starling filling himself full of ivy berries. Today there were lots of starlings on the ivy.

INCREDIBLE EDIBLES

Today some of the children planted the incredible edibles, we planted carrots, onions, corriander, courgettes, turnip, lettuce, strawberries and potatoes, these will all be planted out along with some other vegetables, in about a month.  All classes have a veg plot, carefully manured, dug, raked and left ready for planting.

I am looking forward to seeing all the colourful name plates for each classes veg garden. 
Here are some classes enjoying the open air.



Miss Ryans Class



W

Mr Dunnes Class

Miss Carrolls class

Miss Mc Dermots class

Mr Sheedys class

Miss Deerys class

Incredible Edibles

Planting starts today!